Motherboard Testing Methodology

For this comparison, I used the Intel Core i7-3960X at stock and overclocked speeds on each motherboard. The same video card, hard drive, and memory were used in all cases. For overclock testing I ran the benchmarks at the highest stable overclock I was able to achieve on each motherboard.

x264Bench HD 3.0, including AMD-supplied variants using new FX instructions

SPECviewperf-11:

Lightwave 9.6

Autodesk Maya 2009

Siemens Teamcenter Visualization Mockup

SPECapc LightWave 3D v9.6

Handbrake 0.95 video transcoding

Blender 3D rendering

POV-Ray 3D rendering

Since I'm using the same video card, hard disk, memory, processor, and even CPU cooler in all platforms, the motherboards are the only things that can affect the performance. Keep this in mind as you review the benchmark results in the following sections.

Comments

SWEET WHAT YOU GOING TO DO WITH THE ONES YOUR BENCH TESTING WHEN YOUR DONE??? I WOULD LIKE TO RIDE THIS MACHINE TO ITS LIMITS AND BACK. REALLY GREAT CHIPSET AND SECOND GENERATION PROCESSORS ARE OUT OF THIS WORLD INTEL GREAT JOB GUYS AND MOTHERBOARD COMPANIES KEEP THE X79 CHIPSET ON THE MBS SO WE CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE NEW CHIPS HAPPY HOLIDAYS DUDES DUDETTES AND ALL OTHER LIFE FORMS ON THIS PLANET...PEACE OUT BYE BYE

I see Asus still using the FAILED garbage Marvell 9128. Can't wait to see if they lie about the pci-e 3.0 like they did with the TRUE Sata 3, which is Sata 2. Good idea blowing heat onto the usb and sata port.

Well, bear in mind that the PCI-E 3.0 is a function of the Intel X79 Express chipset. The actual status of this feature seems a little fuzzy right now: it hasn't been "officially" certified and nobody can test it yet since there are no PCI-E 3.0 cards to test it against.